Even though he guided West Bromwich Albion to within three minutes of a first home victory over Manchester United in 30 years, Alan Irvine has told his Albion players there is still room for improvement.

Proud as he was with the effort and organisation the Baggies displayed in Monday’s 2-2 draw at The Hawthorns, the head coach was disappointed that his men weren’t able to close out what would have been a famous victory.

It was just another sign Irvine has brought a cohesion to a West Brom team that was desperately lacking that quality during the travails of last season.

And that transformation is made all the more admirable by the fact Irvine has built a side that contained only one starter from the team which lost 3-0 to the same opponents just seven months ago.

But the Scot says much work remains to be done if Albion are to realise the potential at which they have thus far only hinted.

“We played well,” he said. “I was a little bit concerned because we’ve had so many players away and were probably fortunate that we had a three-day lead-in.

“We were able to get the work done that we felt we needed to get done to be able to play against a team like Manchester United. We’re going in the right direction. We still need to improve, there’s no doubt about that.

“But we said to the players afterwards that with the way that they go about their jobs and the way they try to do the things we’ve been working on, I feel we can continue to improve.”

Their next chance to demonstrate that progress comes at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday - a match they won last season and one which turned out to be their final victory under Steve Clarke.